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Sherry: Edith and I recently attended Left Coast Crime in Monterey, California. During one of the panels there was a discussion about what defines a cozy mystery and what makes it different than a traditional mystery. I was surprised when one author said the most important thing in a cozy is the setting. Another author said that cozies have a “precious” factor.

I found both of these statements interesting and inaccurate when thinking about my upcoming novel Tagged for Death (coming in December 2014 from Kensington — I know, I know shameless self promotion alert). While I love the setting I created — the fictional town of Ellington, Massachusetts and a fictional Air Force Base, Fitch AFB — without the characters and action no one would give a fig about them. I like to think my characters and storyline are real and plausible. What do you think Wickeds?

Edith: I have a little set piece I bring out when people ask what a cozy mystery is. To summarize: village setting, amateur sleuth, a lighter tone, with sex, violence, and obscenities all off the page. But as Cleo Coyle does so well, a village can be a neighborhood in a big city. And mild swearing sometimes creeps onto the page. And sometimes the romance gets a little hot. Breaking the rules is allowed. But maybe others have different rules. At LCC one panel invented the term “cozy noir.” How’s that for a crossover?

Jessie: I think cozies provide a puzzle in a place readers would like to visit over and over, peopled with characters that come to feel like old friends. For me, cozies are about communities a sleuth cares enough about to try to return things to normal after the unthinkable happens

Julie: This is such a great question, and I’ve thought a lot about it. I wrote a post on my other blog (Live to Write/Write to Live) about being a cozy reader/writer. I really love the genre, and look back to the Golden Age of detective fiction (between the world wars) for inspiration for my definition of a modern cozy. A cozy is in a small community/controlled space, has interesting characters, a good puzzle, lacks gore, sex is off screen, and it restores order and/or provides justice. The last is important–cozies help people feel better about the chaos of life. Ironically, it is done via a murder (usually), but that dichotomy is for another post.

Barb: I think about this a lot, too. For me, as others have suggested, in a cozy mystery the world is an orderly and just place and the sleuth’s journey (usually, but not always an amateur) is to restore order and serve justice by solving the crime. In noir, the world is a chaotic and unjust place and the sleuth’s journey only proves how chaotic and unjust the world is and always will be. Which is why I’m not sure about “cozy noir.” I think “cozy” is a bigger tent than people credit it, and cozy readers are similarly more diverse and eclectic than you might expect. (At least the ones I hear from.) Though cozies are often considered to be written by women, for women (and we should talk about the impact of that at some future time), I’ve been astonished by how many men have read and enjoyed Clammed Up.

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Wicked Cozy Authors

Jessie Crockett/Jessica Estevao

Jessica Estevao writes the Change of Fortune Mysteries. The first in the series, Whispers Beyond the Veil, will release in September 2016. She loves the beach, mysterious happenings and all things good-naturedly paranormal. While she lives for most of the year in New Hampshire with her dark and mysterious husband and exuberant children, she spends summers on the coast of Maine where she keeps an eye out for sea monsters and mermaids.

As Jessie Crockett she’s the author of the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove Mysteries and the Daphne du Maurier Award winner, Live Free or Die.

Sherry Harris

Sherry Harris is the author of the Agatha nominated Sarah Winston Garage Sale Series. The fifth book in the series, I Know What You Bid Last Summer, debuts in February 2018.

J. A. Hennrikus / Julianne Holmes

Julianne Holmes writes the Clock Shop Mystery series, which debuted in 2015 when Just Killing Time was published by Berkley Prime Crime. Just Killing Time was nominated for a Best First Novel Agatha Award. Clock and Daggerwas published in August 2016. Chime and Punishment will be published in August 2017.

J.A. (Julie) Hennrikus has a Theater Cop series that will debut in the fall of 2017 with A Christmas Peril. She writes short stories that have appeared in the award winning Level Best Books. She serves on the board of Sisters in Crime, and is a member of Sisters in Crime New England, and MWA.

Edith Maxwell

Agatha- and Macavity-nominated and national bestselling author Edith Maxwell writes the Local Foods Mystery series, with Mulch Ado About Murder as the latest. She also writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries. Turning the Tide releases in April 2018. Agatha-nominated Delivering the Truth was also nominated for a 2017 Macavity Sue Feder Award for Best Historical Novel.

Edith’s alter-ego Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries series (Biscuits and Slashed Browns) and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, releasing in 2019. Edith, who lives north of Boston with her beau and three cats, also writes award-winning short crime fiction and is President of Sisters in Crime New England.

Liz Mugavero

Liz Mugavero is the author of the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, published by Kensington Books, Kneading to Die, a 2013 Agatha nominee, A Biscuit, A Casket, The Icing on the Corpse , and Murder Most Finicky . Liz also writes the Cat About Town series as Cate Conte for St. Martin's Press, coming soon.

Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries from Kensington Publishing: Clammed Up, Boiled Over, Musseled Out, Fogged Inn,Iced Under and Stowed Away. Her novella “Nogged Off” was included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in the holiday collection Eggnog Murder. Visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com.

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Wicked Accomplices

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The Wicked Cozys are lucky to be surrounded by many talented friends. Three of them write a monthly post on this blog.

Sheila Connolly

Sheila Connolly writes the Orchard Mysteries, the Museum Mysteries, and the County Cork Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and the Relatively Dead series with Beyond the Page Publishing, and manages to squeeze few short stories between them all.

Kimberly Kurth Gray

Kimberly Kurth Gray is a recipient of the William F. Deck-Malice Domestic grant for unpublished writers. In addition to her monthly post as The Detective's Daughter, she writes for Scenes from a Baltimore Kitchen. Her latest short story can be found in The Boardwalk, a Rehoboth Beach anthology published by Cat and Mouse Press.

Susannah Hardy/Sadie Hartwell

Susannah Hardy is the author of the Greek to Me Mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime, Feta Attraction, Olive and Let Die, and A Killer Kebab. As Sadie Hartwell, she writes the Tangled Web Mysteries from Kensington Publishing, Yarned and Dangerous and A Knit Before Dying (August, 2017). Visit her websites at www.susannahhardy.com and www.sadiehartwell.com.